Monday, September 16, 2013

aimed down the right side, and just let the slope bring the ball back left . . .

half-wedge into the green, 2 putt par

#2 is more, even more of the same . . . I *knew* to stay right, but my ball kinda got hung up in the right rough . . . clear shot to the green, and NOT at the bottom of that dang swale, even the photo does not show how deep it really was .

missed the green pin high on the right, terrified of missing left and going down that slope. 7iron puttchip and tapin par.

I guess the architect's aim is to make you challenge that corner -- not this kid, not the first time around, anyway . . . just hit it straight at that sliver of corner of dogleg visible on the left

that elevated green is tough from anywhere, but from that leftside position I was in, that tree on the right of the picture looked really intrusive . . . just hit kinduva knockdown 7iron to keep it under the tree, and let the slope kick the runner back towards the middle . . . came up short on the front fringe. easy up-and-down.

I just looked at this meterage wrong . . . softpedalled a 7wood when I shudda hit a full 5wood. double-bogey.

I cudda sworn this was a par 5. . . tough hole as a 4. . . . no matter how well you hit your drive, it just dogs it into that slope/ I started experimenting with this course using the zoom for the tee shots . . . original concept is just to show what I see from the tee but . . . sometimes the zoom does seem more revealing.

2nd shot is blind. I just softpedalled a 5iron straight down the fairway, then pitched long onto the green . . .but I MADE that putt, for what I thot was a birdie. . . 8^\

so, on this bona fide par 5 I was pretty confident, but the drive down the left side was a little thin . . . terrified again of losing it right. smoothed a 5iron again, since it had worked out the previous hole for the blind approach, but this one got caught up in the trash on the left

so it took an extra shot to get on the green . . . tap-in bogey

I musta been having trouble converting meters to yards for my shot selections . . . I thot that tree on the right in the fairway was just a target, but I wound up right behind it 20 meters from the green.

just kinda chunked the pitch around the tree on the green and 2putt par.

this is the only hole that's kinda messed up . . . had a temporary tee and the yardage wasn't right. totally grooved an 8iron 20 m past the green. up-up-and down from there, dangit.

I love these tight fairways, I concentrate so well.

but my drive rolled right off into the rough, making the second shot around that tree a little more problematic. I pragmatically clubbed a 5 iron into the left rough, away from the tree, then hit a half wedge into birdie position . . . there was some guy practicing on the green as I walked up . . . I think he kinda tore up the smooth roll, I missed that little 4 footer.

this was squirrelly . . . some 9-hole tourney or something starting on #10 . . . I was uncertain of the etiquette, but I just assumed that someone from #9 keeps playing, so I did, as soon as the old ladies got out of my way . . . but the delay threw off my rhythm . . . totally popped up the 7wood. just a bogey.

another blind tee shot. . . despite all my internal coaching, I still leaked the drive off right, into some nasty tall rough next to a fence.

I chopped my ball out with a 7iron, which ought to have been enough to reach the green, even considering the distance, the rough, the uphill slope, and the wind, but I still came up short. pitched up way long, 2 putt bogey. acid-burn.

under the coaching of some marshal like character the old ladies let me play thru here . . . apparently - etiquette wise - I was a little dilatory, I realized . . . they had just pulled off the fairway out of the way, but they had to come back out and wave me up before I realized . . . some how my effusive, molte-gracies & bon-giornos didn't make up the gap.

drive -- as per normal when playing thru -- was not the best, but it was in the fairway. scuttled up and just hit a 5iron to the left side without thinking too much. Hit a 9iron out of the light rough and thot OMG what a terrible shot, a low-banana-slice, but it wound up pin high. no birdie but an easy 2putt.

fighting the screen by the tee, making sure I didn't go way left avoiding it, of course I sliced off into those little trees on the right.

had to chop out a safety, no room to swing . . . but then hit a career 9iron 4feet from the pin . . . there was a guy raking the traps, oblivious to me, till my ball landed on the green. . . I kinda waved him an apology, but he smiled forgiveness for the accuracy of my shot, he was never in danger. . . . made the par putt.

stayed so well left of these big trees i wound up in the adjacent fairway . . . I would reckon that was common, but the course wasnt too busy. . .

nice house, huh?

misguided an 8 iron short right of the green

had to lob over the green side bunkers without much room to workwith. bogey.

hit as pure a 6iron as I ever hope to, straight at the pin.

if i hit a 5iron that pure it would fly the green,

i came up 20 ft short of the pin, tho'

so i have no idea what i'd do on a second try.

2putt par.

possibly the most ordinary hole on the course . . . nuthin to see.

just pulled a leg-weary low slider into the right rough.

then hit a short iron right on top of the pin but it bounced hard and over.

bad chip bogey.

totally mangled this par 5. another low hook drive, then just thot I'd hit a 3wood, and foozled. . . hit a 7wood and came up way short of the green, chunked up short and 2 putt bogey.

#18 . . . . .

this was a pretty intimidating shot . . . up hill, hard dogleg right, so the tee shot has to be the right distance, beyond the fairway, it just rolls off to nowhere, and short or right you got nuthin . . . so I smoothed a 3wood, and hit the highest straightest shot I ever remember with a 3wood . . . was actually too good. . rolled off the humpy dogleg into short rough with a restricted view of the green.

nuthin for it but to try a sort of trick shot, hit a half-7iron knockdown with a hook . . . just too strong was all, way over the back into the woods. when I finally found my ball I could pitch it back onto the green into a makeable par position, but no go. bogey

really fun course, set in beautiful setting, in Impruneta, Tuscany, hard to argue with any of that . . .

a little short and a little easy to be a top-tier course, but then again, I was totally on my game this day, so maybe it's not so easy . . . lots of chances for trouble. . .

Pukka Dave

Pukka Dave

Pukka Dave -- The Bohemian Duffer

The Pukka is the European cousin of The Kokopelli . . . the aliases of the two overlap completely: Jackalope, Leprechaun, Trickster, Trouble-maker, et al. . . . it's not that the Golfer is looking for trouble, it's just that trouble is such an essential part of Golf, if you know what I mean . . . 8^D . . .